Transgender Mandate Requires Doctors to Violate Hippocratic Oath

Virtually every doctor in America takes some variation of the Hippocratic Oath, promising to put the needs of each individual and unique patient first and do no harm. And yet, for the first time, the Transgender Mandate would force doctors to violate their oath.

Medical scienceis on the side of any doctor who feels that in a specific case it would be a mistake to begin gender transition procedures on a child.

The Mandatedoes not allow space for the doctor’s medical judgmentand does not even allow the doctor to refer the child to another doctor, even one more qualified, or for a hospital to find a doctor willing to perform the procedure. Any refusal by a qualified and practicing doctor to perform such a procedure is a violation of the Mandate[6].

The Mandate is not about access to care. It is not about science or the best medical research. It is clearly not about the welfare and health of children. This Mandate would mark a significant movement away from the accepted medical ethics of our time, ethics that were affirmed and strengthenednearly 70 years agoprecisely in response to a time when governments tried to force doctors to administer treatments and perform procedures doctors knew to be harmful.